Family
by Smokeyboi
Summary: Himiko Toga didn't see anything wrong with her; she never hurt anyone, but her family had cruelly thrown her out regardless; a chance meeting with Izuku might show her how it feels to be in a family.


It was cold - so, so, cold; the raindrops fell on the streets intermittently, but the signs of heavy downpour were still there - heavy overcast, large puddles, and petrichor lingered in the air.

"This seriously - _really _stinks," The girl said, her position fetal and her condition poor.

Her eyes showed that she hadn't gotten more than an hour of sleep, and her clothes were dirty, wet, and torn at different places as though she hadn't changed in a while and was outside for the whole duration of wearing them; the clothes, however, served very little purpose at this point, nobody had seen her in - what, five days?

"Mom?" A distinctly separate voice rang out, "Mom, where are you?" The owner of the voice had to be no older than her, probably younger, and distinctly more childish - they probably hadn't been forced to mature at such an accelerated pace.

The girl sat up, her whole body aching from the prolonged session of lying down, "Who are you?" She attempted to stand, but couldn't find the strength, but assumed a defensive stance nonetheless.

"I'm uhh - uhh," The boy fell backward on his hands and tried to scuttle away, "I'm lost!"

She confirmed that it wasn't just a babyish-sounding person, it was an actual toddler - probably four or five.

"Sorry for scaring you," The girl said, groaning as she attempted to stand up, barely managing such an arduous task, "It's just - not many people visit me back here." She saw that the boy - they were a boy - wasn't any more calmed down, "I'm Toga."

"I'm -" He looked around as if scanning once more for his mother, "I'm Izuku."

"Where's your mom?" Toga had a serious headache and rubbed her head in response to it, "Oh right, you don't know."

Izuku shook his head, and Toga stumbled toward him. She groaned as gravity betrayed her and she tumbled into the ground.

"Are you alright?" Izuku sort of step-waddled in the way only young children, including her, could, toward her.

She was tempted to take the hand offered to her, but he seemed kind, and his hands were (probably) clean, "I'm ok."

She gestured the boy to follow her as she stepped out from the alleyway onto the main street; she had no idea why she was doing this, maybe she just wanted to get him out of her hair, or maybe it was to do something to make her feel better.

A few adults shot them a temporary glance, but they probably didn't care - not if their lack of any meaningful attention was any indication; they failed, intentionally or otherwise, to feel any sense of empathy towards them. It might've been okay had Toga been a teenager, but it seemed insane that two small children, one of which who looked like they hadn't been bathed in a few months at least, would be simply left alone like that.

"Uhn!" Izuku squeaked as he seemed to get caught up in between two adults and his little body was being so callously crushed, "Toga!"

Toga turned around suddenly at that cry, and, ignoring her previous reservations, grabbed the boy's hand and pulled with all her might - which was just enough to free him and send them crashing into each other.

"Sorry," Izuku looked like he was on the verge of crying, which he'd did a lot tonight, based on his puffy red eyes, which she'd just noticed "I didn't mean to get stuck."

"Huh?" Toga looked at him, and her eyes conveyed her worry, "It's…" She took his hand, not wanting to lose him again, "It's fine; do you know what your mom looks like?"

"Um, she's tall, and she has long green hair," Izuku followed in close step behind Toga, although neither of them knew where they were going, "I think she has on a black jacket."

"Do you know her n-" Toga was about to ask, before being cut off.

"Izuku!" A green-haired woman, who was indeed wearing a black jacket ran up to the boy and scooped him into her arms.

"Mom!" He wrapped his arms around his mom's head, and the two of them seemed to be crying.

"I go to the bathroom for five minutes - I swear, that's the last time I let Mistuki watch you." Inko put him down, "Who's this, Izuku?"

"It's Toga." He smiled, and Toga gulped nervously, unused to a parental figure that wasn't mad at her, "She helped me find you!"

_I didn't really. _Toga thought, stunned into silence.

"Oh, that's nice of her," Inko leaned down, smiling wide as her son, "Where's your parents…" She trailed off when she saw - and smelled - just how bad of a way she was in.

"Umm," She was unsure of how to answer the question, but she couldn't make herself leave, "I don't know." She looked down shyly, and shuffled her feet slightly, "I haven't seen them in a while."

"What do you mean?" Inko's face twisted in confusion, "Oh my, do you mean… you ran away?"

"Well," Toga looked down bashfully, and her hands went behind her back.

Inko sighed, from what she knew, there had to be a really serious issue for a five-year-old to actually run away, and stay away for as long as she had, "Would you like a place to stay tonight? And then we can talk to your parents?"

She seemed to recoil at the last part, but she didn't like sleeping in a cold alleyway on a pile of garbage, "Yeah…"

She let herself sink in the bath, which was quite warm and excessively sudsy; she let out a groan as she scrubbed a little too hard on a bruised part of her ribcage.

"Toga," Inko knocked on the door, "Whenever you're ready," Toga heard something placed down on the ground, "Here are your clothes, I just dried them."

"Thank you," Toga kept staring forward, not bothering to look for a second at the door opening or knocking, used to more brazen invasions of her privacy.

She ran her hand through her hair again, making sure there was no soap left, and, after drying off quickly on account of her small stature and the large towels Izuku's mom (whatever her name was, she wasn't sure) kept, she examined herself in the mirror.

"Wow," She was covered in small cuts, bruises and what looked to be a really bad scar running perpendicular to her left arm along the left side of her chest; she hesitantly touched it, and bit down on her finger, just not drawing blood, and realized why she _shouldn't _do that.

She walked out of the bathroom after getting dressed in her clothes, which were, even clean, quite plain - not something she would wear voluntarily.

Her sense of smell was blasted by something not entirely unfamiliar, but not totally familiar, either, something food-like, probably food.

She walked to where the kitchen was, and she saw Izuku getting pet on the head by his mother as he bounced around her, asking when food would be ready.

It was strange - they were so close, and the whole apartment seemed to be warmed up by the two of them.

"Over here!" Izuku caught a glimpse of Toga and waved her over, "Mom's making food!"

Yep - that was definitely food, some kind of meat thing? It didn't really matter, she was hungry.

"It's pork, is that alright, Toga?" Izuku's mother smiled at her.

"Umm," She was unused to having someone care about her opinion, "That's - that's alright."

The woman turned the burner off, and she grabbed two bowls, apportioning a moderate amount of some type of soup for both of them.

Izuku sat down at their table, he seemed eternally happy, or at least, neutrally happy.

"So, Toga," The woman set her bowl down on the table, "Would you mind telling me _why _you're not with your parents?"

"Well," Izuku looked at her as she was speaking, and his expression was passive, as though he was waiting for her response as well, "When I got my quirk…" She took a moment and breathed in, "I started to get these… feelings. I would feel hungry and thirsty and, and I would - one day I got a cut on my finger," The older woman stared at her intently, silently gesturing for her to continue, "And when I licked the blood up, I suddenly felt _not _hungry or thirsty."

"So you're saying that you had a," She searched for a word that a child would know, "Habit to drink blood?"

Toga nodded, pulling her shirt open so she could try to fit her head in it and hide her face, "It was only my own at first, but…" Toga was crying now, "It started to not be enough, and - and, before I even did anything," Her face was in her hands, and she could barely speak, "They got mad at me, and they called me all sorts of names, and I just… hated it so much! So I ran away."

She looked down, "How long has this been going on?"

"I've been gone for a week. I don't think they care that I'm gone."

"Oh my God," The lady put her hand over her mouth, "I don't know what to say."

"You can have some of my blood!" Izuku suggested.

"Huh?" Toga looked over at him.

"I said you can have some of my blood." He didn't appear to be joking or teasing her in any way.

"Izuku…" His mom put a hand on his shoulder, but he didn't change expression at all.

"Well, I think, if she needs it," He was a child, and his thought process was fittingly childish, "Then she needs it. I don't think it's weird."

"Are you really considering this, Inko?" The woman, Inko, said to herself. She sighed, and then she turned to Toga, "If you're careful, then I guess it's fine. But I'm serious, don't hurt my baby boy."

Toga was taken aback, not only had this woman allowed a dirty child into her home, but her son had also not hesitated to help her when he heard about her issues.

It felt like home, a real home instead of the mortar prison she'd previously lived in.

She felt like crying but wasn't sure if it was appropriate, so she silently bowed her head, "Thank you very much," She took a step toward Izuku, and then looked up at his eyes, asking for a final permission.

"It's fine," He nodded, looking straight forward, "I've gotten my shots, sharp things don't hurt."

She stood up on her tippie-toes, noticing the hesitant look on Inko's face, and placed her teeth on Izuku's neck, making sure not to hit any of the large tubes where she knew more blood came out - she didn't want him to bleed a lot.

"Mmm," Toga - No, that wasn't her name anymore. Himiko groaned as the first drop of blood hit her tongue; it was entirely different from her own blood, but still with an iron-y overtone. It took no more than two seconds for her to pull off; she was a small child, after all.

Izuku looked back at her, his smile still present on his face, and Himiko couldn't help but cry.


End file.
